Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 489 The wool comes from the sheep

"How do you plan to get the devilish woman to talk?"

Ma Zhaodi and the butcher sat in the restaurant, glancing occasionally through the shop window at the old residential apartment building diagonally across the street. Because it was daytime, the butcher kept his voice down. He asked Ma Zhaodi, "Judging from where she lives, she's probably struggling financially. Should we just bribe her?"

“No one would dare to sell such a secret for money,” Ma Zhaodi replied. “Walter, or rather Locomotive, dared to entrust her with such a life-or-death secret, which means that the two of them are quite close. Money can’t buy anything with it; it would only alert the enemy.”

The butcher's expression didn't change. He had asked a trap question, after all. In fact, he had a set of procedures he had developed over the years, but he just wanted to see if Ma Zhaodi had any basic judgment.

He wouldn't team up with an idiot against Walter; that would be suicide.

"Do you have any ideas?"

"According to the Transparent Man, the Train comes almost every night. After all, she has nothing to do with Walter now, and information protection is not so strict. Monitoring her might yield some clues."

"You want to go in and install a camera?"

"There's no need to go in and install cameras. Modern electronic devices already have built-in cameras; you can just hack in."

"Then we don't need to go in?"

"No, we still have to go in."

Are you fucking messing with me?

"Please speak politely, thank you."

Ma Zhaodi calmly dipped his fries in sauce: "Generally speaking, we can stay inside first, observe clearly with the camera, see the interaction between the 'Claw Woman' and the train engine, find the location where she stores Compound No. 5, and then sneak in to take the stuff out."

"But we were very lucky because I had seen a locomotive once before."

"What does this have to do with compound number five?"

“Some brothers, some—I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but my sense of smell is very sensitive, and I can detect a lot of information that ordinary people can’t smell.”

"In addition to the normal smell of sweat and metabolic waste such as urea, the locomotives at that time also had a very special chemical smell."

"I couldn't figure out what it was at the time, but considering his excited expression and the fact that he couldn't control his speed, I thought he was on drugs."

"But guess what? I've been in New York for several days, smelling the smell of toxic insects in bars, on the streets, and even in middle-class homes or upscale hotel neighborhoods, and I can assure you, there's no smell like that locomotive from that day."

"So, what would he smell like?"

The butcher's eyes gleamed with an unusual light.

"Damn it, compound five is a drug?! You're a fucking genius!"

“Right, so what we need to do is very simple.” Ma Zhaodi finished his meal and left the bill on the table: “I’ll sneak into her house, and if I can smell that compound again, then we’ve hit the jackpot. We’ll follow the smell to find it and steal a little bit. Just a little bit that won’t be noticed.”

"When to make a move?"

"Now."

As soon as Ma Zhaodi finished speaking, the door of the old single-room apartment opened, and the woman with the grudge walked out, carrying a bag. She was wearing a pretty long dress, and her makeup looked quite elaborate. There seemed to be a look of joy in her eyes, as if she had found a lifeline.

“Your assumption that she is struggling financially is just that, but you’re right.” Ma Zhaodi stood up. “Her bank account doesn’t look good. The locomotive didn’t even give her any money. The Water Company really takes the principle of saving money wherever possible to the extreme.”

The butcher's mind hadn't quite grasped the situation, but his body had already followed Ma Zhaodi out of the restaurant on its own: "What does this have to do with her going out today?"

"She used to be a superhero movie star, and the movies she starred in were quite popular for a while. So, if she is looking for a source of income, a film crew that is casting actors with superpowers is definitely the best option."

"You forged an audition email?" "I spent $10,000 to pretend to be a fan of her films and asked a member of a small film crew to send her an audition email—of course, it was just an audition email. She probably won't get a role today; she has no connections, no money, and isn't some acting genius. It would be more sensible for her to just switch careers."

The butcher's focus, however, was on the money: "Ten thousand US dollars for something like this? You're that rich?"

"The 30,000 li you gave me before, the money came from the sheep itself."

"."

The two crossed the road and arrived at the apartment door. Ma Zhaodi calmly reached into his pocket, took something out, and turned the lock a few times before opening the door.

"Where did you get the key?"

The butcher merely glanced at the surrounding streets before hearing the sound of a door lock opening, and couldn't help but look at Ma Zhaodi in surprise.

“A friend of mine once told me that there’s no need to steal the key to a regular door.” Ma Zhaodi casually put a hairpin back into his pocket: “Prying the lock is easier, since you can open the door anyway.”

"Your friend is not simple."

"That's right, she's almost ready to be released from prison."

This is the second time today that the butcher has been rendered speechless.

The two walked into the room.

"Leave no trace."

Ma Zhaodi casually tossed the gloves and shoe covers to the butcher.

He took a deep breath, and a strong, familiar smell immediately stood out from the many smells in the house—it was the chemical smell from the locomotive that day.

"You can smell it?"

"I can smell it. It's much stronger than the smell on the locomotive. It's probably a long-term storage site. They might even smoke or inject it here often."

Following the scent, the two found a hidden compartment in a bedroom with little effort, containing a small safe.

Did your friend teach you how to open a safe?

"She not only taught me, but she also said I was very talented at petty theft—but I think it's because of my strong hearing and muscle control."

Ma Zhaodi wasn't exaggerating. In just half a minute, the safe was opened, and inside the small bag were two glass tubes containing a beautiful, pure sky-blue solution.

The butcher could no longer suppress his smile: "Quick, let's grab one of these and leave immediately. Walter's dead meat this time."

However, Ma Zhaodi glanced at the sealed container containing the compound but did not take it away immediately.

"what are you doing?"

“My original intention was to take some samples, but it’s unlikely that the sealed packaging can be restored to its original state. Taking one directly from here would alert the enemy.”

"So what the hell did you come in here for? To go shopping?"

Ma Zhaodi thought about it carefully.

Do you know chemistry?

(End of this chapter)